BizTips from SCORE – Bouncing Back

BizTips from SCORE – Bouncing Back

We all know from the lessons learned during the pandemic that the secret to the sustainability of our small businesses on the Cape & Islands was resilience.  The secret to resilience is strategic planning so you are able to view all the options available to you to move forward.  Bouncing back can be the result of any number of unexpected or unplanned events  – your partner decides to take a different direction and wants to sell his/her share, your direct competitors introduce a solution that eclipses yours and you lose important customers, you lose key employees to other options.   Some elements of resilience that help you bounce back are:

Bad times don’t last.  Things will get better if you stay positive and allow others to help.  Don’t take the downturn personally.  Sometimes bad things just happen.  Sometimes we exaggerate the impact of a negative occurrence which makes it seem worse.  Try not to look at the “glass half empty, but half full”  Being positive about recovery actions helps get to the goal faster.

Perfection is not always good.  Sometimes good is good enough. When the expectation is perfection, and it doesn’t occur, negativity invades ownership’s attitudes.  If you concentrate on the positive and laugh occasionally problems become lessened in their importance. 

Accept those things you cannot change.  Change what you can and ignore the remainder since there is nothing you can do about it.

Keep things in perspective.  Your business is just one part of your life and doesn’t have to spoil everything else.  Take a lesson from Mr. Positivity, Jonathan Thompson (JT) – look at the positive side and the outlook becomes doable. 

Contributed by Marc L. Goldberg, Certified Mentor, SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands, www.score.org/capecod, 508/775-4884